This Boxing Game: A Study in Beautiful Brutality [Hardcover]

What is it about boxing that charms and bewitches us? John Wight looks for the answer as he delves into the world of beautiful brutality. Showing that boxing is fundamentally tied to the human condition, he pulls back the curtains of his own masculinity to reveal the insecurities, life experiences and vulnerabilities that first drew him to the sport and have informed his engagement with it over a 20-year period. Whilst relating his experiences in boxing gyms on both sides of the Atlantic, Wight reflects on the sport’s origins, analyzing some of its most memorable moments and characters. Through Wight’s compelling memoirs we encounter some of modern boxing’s most fascinating figures, among them Freddie Roach, Manny Pacquiao, James Toney and Scotland’s IBF super-lightweight Josh Taylor. Straddling the line between nobility and barbarity, boxing operates on a different moral and spiritual plane than other sports.This Boxing Gameexplores why and how.

John Wighthas written for theGuardian, the Independent, the Scottish Daily Record, theHuffington PostandRTamong other publications. He spent five years in Hollywood working as a screenwriter.

Brutally honest, compelling and self-deprecating memoir, in-depth analysis and passionate advocacy of a sport that uniquely straddles the line between nobility and brutality